EUREKA -- A surfer who was bumped off his board by a shark was able to push the animal away and paddle back to shore. Brian Kang, 38, was 200 yards offshore Thursday, waiting for a wave in a popular surfing area near Eureka, when the shark knocked him into the water. The shark came back toward him as he tried to climb back onto the surfboard.

"It just came out of the blue," Kang said from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for gashes on his hip, knees and thumb. "I pushed it away with my hands."

Kang said he never got a good look at the shark, but another surfer spotted a 3-foot dorsal fin, which would indicate a great white shark.

It was the second shark attack along California's northern shore in recent months.

A great white shark estimated to be 17 feet long killed a man in August near Fort Bragg as he was diving for abalone.